Hungary posts 503 mln euros of trade deficit in March

BUDAPEST, May 9– Hungary posted a foreign trade deficit of 503 million euros in March, the country’s Central Statistical Office said on Monday. “The deterioration is brutal: Hungary’s foreign trade deficit is at a level unseen in two decades,” local business portal Portfolio commented. “Hungary’s export performance was not bad in early spring, but imports…

BUDAPEST, May 9 (Xinhua) — Hungary posted a foreign trade deficit of 503 million euros (528 million U.S. dollars) in March, the country’s Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Monday.

Meanwhile, “the balance of external trade in goods deteriorated by 1.4 billion euros,” it said.

This was the ninth consecutive month that Hungary had recorded a trade deficit.

The value of exports (12,120 million euros) was 8.7 percent and that of imports (12,623 million euros) 23 percent higher in euro terms in March 2022 than in the same period of the previous year.

Compared to February, the level of goods exports rose by 5.4 percent and that of goods imports by 8.7 percent.

“The deterioration is brutal: Hungary’s foreign trade deficit is at a level unseen in two decades,” local business portal Portfolio commented.

“Hungary’s export performance was not bad in early spring, but imports continued to rise, the main reason for which was the extreme level of energy prices,” it added.

Hungary’s foreign trade balance was in a steady surplus between 2009 and 2021. (1 euro = 1.05 U.S. dollars) Enditem